KT Wiz of professional baseball won the first match of three consecutive games against SSG Landers, tied for fifth.
KT won an away game against SSG in the 2024 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League at SSG Landers Field in Incheon on the 23rd, 11-6.먹튀검증
With the bases loaded with one outs in the bottom of the eighth inning, Park Young-hyun, the closing pitcher, struck out consecutively and extinguished the fire. Park Young-hyun is making his 21st save in this season by pitching perfect with three strikeouts and no runs in one ⅓ inning. Kang Baek-ho hit a grand slam in the batting lineup, and Jang Sung-woo and Kim Sang-soo hit four hits each. Moon also hit his 13th and 14th multi-homer games in this season.
With three consecutive wins, KT has now tied for fifth with 58 wins, 60 losses and two draws (.492) overall. Having lost for two consecutive games, SSG fell to sixth with 57 wins, 61 losses and one draw (.483) overall. The team is now trailing seventh-ranked Hanwha (54 wins, 60 losses and two draws).
Early in the game, the team was in the mood of SSG. SSG had the first run thanks to Jung Joon-jae’s hit to the center field in the bottom of the first inning, Guillermo Herredia’s timely hit to left. In the top of the second inning, KT Moon Sang-cheol hit a solo shot to left by SSG starter Kim Kwang-hyun to tie the game, but SSG again took the lead with Park Sung-han’s hit, stole the second base, and Choo Shin-soo’s timely hit to center field.
In the top of the sixth inning, Moon Sang-cheol hit another solo shot from left-center to right to tie the score at 2-2, but SSG immediately ran away with one run in the bottom of the sixth inning. Oh Tae-gon’s double to left-center and Park Sung-han’s double to left gave them a 3-2 lead.
However, KT won the game with five runs and big innings in the top of the seventh inning. KT, which tied the score 3-3 with back-to-back hits by Chun Sung-ho and Jang Sung-woo, and Hwang Jae-gyun’s RBI double on the left side of the game, scored a bases-loaded walk by Kang with no outs and a bases-loaded walk by Moon Sang-cheol. It swung Seo’s fourth fastball to hit the homer over the left fence. With a flying distance of 115 meters, it was his 25th homer of this season. The score was widened to 7-3 with the bases-loaded hit for the third time in his career.
He didn’t give up on SSG, either. After Jung Joon-jae’s bunt hit off KT relief pitcher Kim Min-soo, Choi Jeong-eun had a two-run shot to the mid-wall. He swung Kim’s fifth slider at the center of the fence. With a driving distance of 125 meters, he hit his 32nd homer for this season.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, SSG connected chances to the second and third bases with no outs as Park Ji-hwan’s walk followed by Moon Sang-chul’s throwing error to the second base when Park Sung-han grounded out to the first base. SSG’s Jung Joon-jae’s infield hit and Choi Jeong’s walk to pressure the left field by up to one point led to a one-out bases-loaded chance.
In this situation, KT deployed its closing pitcher Park Young-hyun. With his tough save situation, Park Young-hyun displayed outstanding pitching capability. After striking out Heredia with a fastball in the middle of the fourth pitch, Han Yu-sum also garnered four consecutive fastballs to strike out with a swing and miss. As Han Yu-sum’s bat swung around on a high fastball in the fourth pitch, KT held the one-run lead with one out and full base.
When Park Young-hyun saved his team, KT scored four runs in the top of the ninth inning to secure victory. SSG showed its commitment to victory by deploying Noh Kyung-eun, a must-win team, but KT went on an 11-6 run with Mel Rojas Jr.’s sacrifice fly to the left field and Jang Sung-woo’s superior two-run double at the opportunity, which was made through Kim Sang-soo’s triple to the right-center field and consecutive errors by the opponent team.
The score widened to five points, but Park Young-hyun also came up in the bottom of the ninth inning to strike out Ha Jae-hoon, who swung and missed at the bottom of the ninth inning. He garnered three strikeouts and no runs in one ⅔ inning, making his 21st save in this season. Out of 20 pitches, 17 were fastballs, and simple but powerful pitches overwhelmed the SSG. They were powerful enough to remind people of Oh Seung-hwan’s fastball in his heyday.
KT starter Ko Young-pyo broke his four-game losing streak with 10 hits, one out, nine strikeouts, and three runs in six innings, and earned his fourth win (six losses) of the season. While Kang Baek-ho made the only hit on the day with a grand slam, Jang Sung-woo had four hits, two RBIs, and Kim Sang-soo had four hits. Moon Sang-chul hit his 13th to 14th multi-homer of the season, and Chun Sung-ho and Bae Jeong-dae also had two multi-hits each, making 18 hits.
SSG’s starting pitcher Kim Kwang-hyun allowed eight hits (two homers), three walks, two strikeouts and two runs in five ⅓ innings, but the bullpen collapsed with nine runs. Jung Joon-jae, Eredia and Park Sung-han had three hits each, but they were not enough to prevent the team’s defeat.